just wanted to post a thread because I see this issue happening alot and it is easy just to let it slide. Before I say anything about the subject first let me say this is only for the people that want to say the judo terms correctly, if you don't care than you don't need to care.

Many people when using the Japanese terms dojo, gi, sensei, etc... add the english suffix -s when trying to express the plural of the word. This is incorrect if you want to use the Japanese term correctly in terms of Japanese, in other words 1 gi, 10 gi...my sensei, my 20 sensei... 50 samurai...12 ninja...blah blah blah.

Again this is for the benefit of those who would like to correct this in themselves and to help their dojo, but you don't need me telling you this, I am sure any of you could have found out through your sensei or the internet unless you didn't know to look which is why I wrote this.

If you don't care, than you don't need to care!

This is incorrect if you want to use the Japanese term correctly in terms of Japanese, in other words 1 gi, 10 gi...my sensei, my 20 sensei... 50 samurai...12 ninja...blah blah blah.

But you're speaking English, so English rules apply.



also octopuses not octopodes


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFyY2mK8pxk&feature=player_embedded

Quick, someone get the grammar ninjas.

Grammar ninja reporting for duty.

The term "sensei" has been accepted into the English language as a loan word from Japanese. As such, when used in written or spoken English, the rules for English grammar will apply.

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sensei

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loanword

I'd make the same case for ninja.

No, in that case you would have to follow Latin grammar rules and the plural for ninja is "ninjae."

The ninjas they stole my link

here it is

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFyY2mK8pxk&feature=player_embedded

Hell, I posted that on JF a while back, I think. For Japanese terms, it's basically whether you treat the term as an English word or a Japanese word when you speak English. My Japanese isn't great, but I know the grammar well enough. Still, I use English plurals when speaking English for most Judo terms.

No, in that case you would have to follow Latin grammar rules and the plural for ninja is "ninjae."

I'm going for Greek, which is ninjes, and sounds enough like 'ninjas' to fudge it in conversation.

While we're doing Japanese->English conventions, do you all capitalize judo?

No, in that case you would have to follow Latin grammar rules and the plural for ninja is "ninjae."

A brace of ninjer-teachers would then be "senseii"?

why would judo be capitalized?

why would judo be capitalized?

Because Judo (or Kodokan Judo) is a proper noun in English. http://www.chompchomp.com/terms/propernoun.htm

For the record, we capitalised martial arts for the book, treating them as proper nouns.

A brace of ninjer-teachers would then be "senseii"?

sensei is already plural from senseus

Personally I have trained for a majority of time under Japanese or Japanese trained Americans who were all kind of sticklers for terminology and pernunciation so I feel that when I use a Japanese term that I am saying it in Japanese not using it in an English context, but those who are consciously using it as English and are doing or have been taught to do so purposely are also correct.